Trip to China
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Wednesday, December 24, 2008 This is our final post from China as we head home bright and early tomorrow morning. We have loved spending so much special time in the land of our girls’ birth! Seeing TianAnMen Square, the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, and walking on the Great Wall were all memories that will last a lifetime. China is a beautiful and amazing country that is incredibly rich in culture and history and we have a much better appreciation of it than we did before this trip. We have held our noses to avoid strange smells, pushed our way through crowded streets, and peered straight at the sun through the air pollution. We have learned that the country is not perfect, but it is still quite wonderful. We learned that we share much with the Chinese people. They smile, laugh, and cry just as we do. And somewhere in this great country, there are two women that made an unthinkable sacrifice when they gave our precious daughters a chance at a new and different future the only way they knew how. As I walked the streets, more times than I could count, I would find myself peering at a Chinese woman and wondering if she might be Zoe or Lexi’s birthmother. How I wish I could look into their eyes and promise then that I will do my very best to raise the daughters they could not keep! I wish I could assure them that I will love these girls forever and always, that we will give them a good education, and that the future that lay before Zoe and Lexi are bright with hope and opportunities. Today, we travelled to the American Consulate where Rob and I took an oath that everything we presented to the US government for Lexi’s adoption was true. We were given Lexi’s Chinese passport complete with an American Visa. Now, the only thing that stands between Lexi and US citizenship is a fourteen hour flight to the US. Tomorrow is going to be a long day, but we’ll get through it. For our final meal in China, many families in our travel group ate at a wonderful Italian restaurant on the Shamian Island. All I will say is … YUM! Tomorrow will be the longest Christmas of our lives … literally. Our luggage will get picked up at 5:50 am and we will leave the hotel at 6:45. Our 9am flight will take us to Beijing where we will have a five hour layover. We leave China at 5:20 on a United flight 850 that will take us to Chicago. We arrive in Chicago 56 minutes before we left Beijing with an arrival time of 4:24 pm. We’ll visit with Rob’s mom and sister, then get on United flight 502 which leaves at 9:41 and is supposed to land at 12:15am in Buffalo. A late night. If you happen to see Santa, let him know we’ll be a little late celebrating Xmas this year. But, we’ll be celebrating as a complete Arp family :)

A long trip! Shake shaking the sillies out. The front entrance of the White Swan Hotel

Street vendors.

PP, PPJ, and PPP.

Still lots of people in China!

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